Historical

First off: a little history. According to his Wikipedia summary, a French doctor called René Laennec invented a hollow hearing tube in 1816 to assist doctors in listening to a patient's heart and lungs. Around 1852, the single tube morphed into the standard model that you see plugged into physicians' ears from Grey's Anatomy to House to ER. Apart from making them look hot professional, a stethoscope also helps with auscultation, the examination procedure whereby a doctor eavesdrops on your internal whooshes, pings and lub-dups. Noises from heart rhythms, gut movements and respiration all help with making a diagnosis since a lot of this internal chatter is very specific.

Contemporary

According to the headline(s), the humble “manual” stethoscope is on the edge of obsolescence in the medical world, facing a high-tech upgrade to or even replacement by hand-held devices that apparently do the job better.

The number one contender to replace the stethoscope is a portable, hand-held ultrasound device, but this is closely followed by digital adaptations ranging from electronic versions to the Eko CORE, a digital add-on that works with the traditional stethoscope to amplify and record sounds.